Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 4: Running scales over tunes

Scale outlines: the first step to improvising

Episode 163 · 17:10 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris calls Barry’s scale outline one of his greatest contributions: a default scale for each change that gives you both the sound of the harmony and the feel of how long it lasts. He maps the bridge of Cherokee, shows how to build two-bar phrases from puzzle pieces on each scale and join the scales through common and surrounding notes. Nearly every outline uses just three scales.

Step by step

  1. 1:08Understand the aim: an outline gives default notes for each change and lets you feel how long it lasts
  2. 1:41Map Cherokee’s bridge: C sharp minor 7, F sharp 7, two bars of B; B minor 7, E7, two bars of A; A minor 7, D7, two bars of G; G minor 7, C7, C minor 7, F7
  3. 2:49Apply the rule that a ii-V gets only the V scale: play F sharp 7 up from the tonic to the 7th and back down to fill two bars, then B up and down, E7, A, D7, G, C7, F7
  4. 3:53First shift the same two fingerings down in whole steps, then play the whole bridge within one four-to-five-fret area
  5. 4:59Fill each scale with what Barry says you must know: thirds, triads, chords, pivots, half-step rules, his chromatic scale, the three important arpeggios
  6. 6:37Join the scales: F sharp 7 and B major share notes; from B to E7, D sharp and C sharp surround E7’s flat 7th
  7. 9:54Build two bars on F sharp 7 from puzzle pieces: a chord up from the 3rd with a half step below, two half steps down to the flat 7th, a pivot, then a breath
  8. 13:51Before substituting tritones, find out how much you can play inside the given scale; play outside by choice, not because you’ve run out
  9. 14:58Know that nearly every outline uses three scales: major, dominant 7th and minor 6 diminished (e.g. for the C minor spot in Cherokee)

Barry’s own words on this

4.4 Scale outlines4.1 How Barry calls a scale (tonic to seventh, up/down/up and down)8.1 Put the ii chord away7.3 Getting through changes

In the course

Know it everywhere on the guitarPuzzle piecesThink the dominant: put the ii awayThe three scales for scale outlinesScale outlinesThe descending half-step rules for the dominantSpace, the most important puzzle pieceThe three important arpeggios of a dominantPivotsHalf step below5-4-3-2Notes in common and notes that surroundEvery chord belongs to a scale of chordsExhaust the inside before playing out

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 163 of things I learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would talk about uh this thing that uh could possibly be in my mind uh one of Barry’s greatest contributions to uh the study of our music and that’s his concept of a scale outline. Now, um it’s this really fantastic way to go about taking a tune, looking at a piece of sheet music and saying to yourself, all
  2. 0:34right, what am I supposed to play over this? Now, I’ll show you what I mean. If we take a piece of sheet music and we have the chords that are charted out on top, that’s totally fine, those are great. So, those are telling us as a companyist, here’s your chord to play. Now, we can play any inversion of that chord and even if you go further in detail, you say, oh, well, if I’m a Barry Harris person, I also know that those chords belong to certain eight-note scales. Therefore, anything I know how to do on those eight-note scales, I can implement there in the amount of time that’s allotted. The same thing is true
  3. 1:08of these scale outlines. What it does is it makes a simpler version of at least a starting point for where do you learn how to solo? How do you learn how to solo? What notes am I supposed to put there? The concept of it is these are um default notes, not the only notes you can play, but these are a nice set of default notes to give you the sound of the change and it does two things. It gives you the sound of the chord changes that are going on underneath. And it also gives you the length of time.
  4. 1:41So, you get to feel what the two measures of a change feel like, what does a measure of a change feel like, what does four bars of one change feels like. Okay? So, I’ll give you for instance, if we’re taking, let’s say the we were just talking about this over at school and and been talking about it at studio, but uh let’s take uh we were taking we were looking at How High the Moon, but let’s look at the Bridge of Cherokee. If we take a look at the Bridge of Cherokee, it starts on C sharp minor 7 for a um a full measure to F [music] sharp 7 for a measure to B for two B major for two
  5. 2:14measures. Then it does B minor 7 for a measure, E 7 for [music] a measure, A major for two measures. Does the same thing. A minor 7 for a measure, D 7 for a measure, G 7 for two measures. Then G minor for a measure, C 7 for a measure, then C minor 7 for a measure, F 7 for a measure, then back to the beginning, the B flat, okay? So, that’s a lot of chord changes going on. It’s a series of 2-5s, great. So, Barry’s scale outline to that is super easy, super simple. It gets two things.
  6. 2:49It gives you the first set of sounds that you need to know, and it gives you the length of time they go for. So, for instance, one of the rules for a scale outline is >> [music] >> a 2-5 just gets the five scale. So, if we say C sharp minor F sharp 7, there’s our F sharp 7 scale. And rhythmically, what he liked to do was play it up to the tonic and then back down. And that’s going to cover almost a full two bars. Watch. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 [music] and 1 and 2 and 3. Now, we have nothing on the fourth beat. We have a little space. So, now we already learned something. Wait a minute, this feels like two bars
  7. 3:21to me. Perfect. We’re going to do the same thing for B major, up and down. Because that’s going to cover two bars. Then it goes to B minor to E 7, so we’re just going to play E 7 up and down. And then A major up and down. We’ll do the same [music] thing for D 7 up and down. Same thing for G major up and down. >> [singing and music] >> Same thing for C 7 up and down. Same thing for F 7 up and down. Now, couple of things right away for guitar players. Brilliant. We could just We could just start here and use the same fingering
  8. 3:53each time, which is what I used to do in class all the time just to make sure I was getting it right, and then just shift where we’re changing keys. So, I’m playing the same exact two fingerings, I’m just shifting them down whole steps. But then when I got home, I realized, “Wait a second. I got to know how to do this in one position.” So, let’s say if I started F sharp 7 here, I’ll do B major here. I’ll keep the E 7 here, but maybe I’ll play A major here. Sorry. And maybe I’ll play D 7 here, and I’ll try to play G major in the same
  9. 4:26[music] spot. So, I’m kind of within this four or five fret area. That’s an interesting thing, and you could start that anywhere and do it anywhere you want and see if you know all of those fingerings. Now, besides just being able to play the scale up and down, all that’s telling you is that’s the default scale that if you choose, you could pick notes from and things that you know how to do. So, your second step is to say, “Okay, I have F sharp 7 for two measures.” Since it’s playing C sharp minor F sharp 7, I have F sharp 7
  10. 4:59for two measures. What do I know how to do on F sharp 7? Well, Barry answers that, too. He says, “You have to know how to play the scale up and down,” [music] which we just did. You have to know how to play the scale in thirds, which we do all the time, triads, chords, pivots, >> [music] >> and so on. You have to know the descending half step rules, or you have to know his chromatic [singing] scale. You have to know the important arpeggios found on the root, found on the fifth, and found on the
  11. 5:33flat seventh. Those are the three important arpeggios. All those different things. Now, that’s before we even talk about anything about tritone or anything. If we just said, “Let’s think of F F sharp 7, just plain F sharp 7.” That already gives you plenty of things. Now, all the things that I just rolled off, scale up and down thirds, triads, think of them as little puzzle pieces that all connect to each other any which way you want to put them together. Okay? That’s the idea. So, we already He’s already given us the foundation to say, “This is the scale you should use for
  12. 6:05that change. That’s the length of time goes for. Here’s a bunch of things that you can learn how to do on the scale to piece together. Now, you’re improvising. Now, it sounds simple, but it’s it’s it is simple, but it’s not easy. You have to piece these things together slowly but surely. And then eventually you say, “Okay, things that I like to do on F sep F sharp seven.” And then there are things I like to do on B major. And then you say, “Well, how is F sharp seven related to B major?” Oh, wait a second.
  13. 6:37They’re the same notes. F sharp seven is the same exact notes as B major. Well, that’s interesting, but what’s different is sometimes on a F sharp seven I like to do certain things that I don’t necessarily do on a B major. So, even though they’re the same notes, I look at it as slightly different. Now, a true, there’s going to be times like the very next change. After I play B major up and down, I’m playing E seven up and down. Now, B major and E seven are not the same notes. So, now Barry had a way of discussing that. He said, “Well, anytime
  14. 7:11you go from one scale to another or one movement to another, you’re going to have two possibilities. You’re going to have notes in common, meaning any of the notes in B that are in E seven, similar notes, and then you’re going to have notes that surround. For instance, the B major has a has a um an E flat in it. Now, E seven does not have an E flat in it, but E flat and D flat, which are the third and the second of B major, surround the flat seventh of
  15. 7:44the of the uh E7. So, you see >> [music] >> So, now you have a connection in between not only F sharp 7 to B major, but then B major into E7. You know you have notes in common and like this particular instance a note that surrounds a note in E7. Really interesting. So, again the scale outline is not just this okay, here’s this um here’s this exercise that you go through uh to to somehow and then once you get to that level, then we start really
  16. 8:17doing something. No, the scale outline is really doing something. It’s not some sort of small thing. It’s the first step that you need to learn how to first of all come up with something pretty to say on let’s say F sharp 7. You really test yourself. Like, what do I know how to do on F sharp 7? I don’t know. I don’t know how to do a lot of stuff. But, now I have two full measures. So, you have to say to yourself, why would a person stop and listen to me play? I have to do something on F sharp 7 to
  17. 8:49make a person feel like, oh, I want to hear that. That sounds interesting. I you owe the listener that. So, it’s the it’s what improvisation is. And the same thing F sharp 7 to B major. How did I connect F sharp 7 and B major? Do I have something that I like to do on B major? And to can I feel the two measures? So, for me, I was talking about this earlier today. Coming from a rock background, the hardest thing for me to get in jazz was, oh, you mean I can’t just play my A minor pentatonic for 16 bars and just play anything I want on A minor
  18. 9:21pentatonic? Cuz most jazz standards don’t do that. They move all the time. If you have two measures of something, you’re lucky. Most of the time things are just a measure of something. So, these ideas of two measures of an F sharp 7 and to be able to feel that and then to feel it going into B major, and then to feel it going into E7. I’m telling you these are the these are so important to start your development. And then you start doing things like, okay, I now I want to create something that lasts two measures. So you say maybe I like, you know, one of the
  19. 9:54things you have to know how to do is um going up chords. I like going up a chord from the third. S- uh maybe we’ll put a half step below the third. So we’ll say 1 2 3 4. Now I’m on the second. So I say ba ba doo boo dee. So now that’s one already puzzle piece. I came up a chord from the third with a half step below. One puzzle piece. Ba ba doo boo dee. So I could just end there, but I have a lot more time in that two measures. Ba ba doo boo dee. That’s not a lot of
  20. 10:26th- that’s not a lot of that’s not a lot to play. I still have some time after. Now I could take a long breath, which is fine, too. But suppose I said from the second, once I get to the second, you know, I like to put two half steps sometimes. So I might say I might come down to the flat seven. So here’s our phrase. 1 2 3 4. And then maybe from the flat seven, I am a habitual pivot person, especially from the flat seven. So here we go. Pretty phrase, right? So now it’s 1 and
  21. 11:002 [music] and 3 and 4 and 1 [singing] and 2 and and maybe I’ll take a breath. Maybe I’ll take a breath after that. That’s plenty of time. And now maybe I’ll play something for a B major. You know, whatever whatever I choose to play on B major, I might do that. But now at least I’m feeling You feel this connection? [music] I said maybe I’ll do the same thing on on the major. Let’s see. That’s a nice one. I could if I wanted
  22. 11:34to, but maybe I’ll do something different. Maybe I’ll do it from the tonic. Oh, that’s a nice one. I’m going to do a chord up from the tonic with a half step below. Two half steps, and then I’ll do five. So, we’ll say A. >> [music] >> That covered this whole thing. And then B major. But, instead I did this. Uh >> [music]
  23. 12:12>> But, see that’s the concept behind taking first from the scale outline and then doing something with it using the scale outline as your guide. Every note I played on that F sharp 7 was totally from F sharp 7. Every note I played on this B major was stuff I’m supposed to know on a major scale. Chords up, chords down, half step rules, all that stuff. The five, I did five. I could have done four. I could have done that. That’s a pretty one, too.
  24. 12:44Um but, that’s the concept. So, I can’t stress it enough. Do not do not um sleep on these. These scale outlines are so important. Now, it is true he usually did scale outlines for tunes that were medium tempo or up tempo. He never did a ballad because I think the reason was I don’t know this to be true, but I think the reason that he didn’t do it on a ballad was because if you just play eighth notes through a ballad, it sounds super slow. But, the same concept is true. Whatever chords you’re on, you got to be
  25. 13:18thinking a certain kind of scale and then things that you need to know how to do on it. Now, some of those things you’ll mix with especially on ballads, you’ll mix with triplets, with double time, some 16th notes and stuff like that. But, it’s still the same concept of saying, “Okay, I have this scale that I’m supposed to know things on, and it’s it’s a constant check on your own playing.” What do I like to do on F#7? Now, just for instance, we haven’t even talked about if I decided to do tritone stuff, if I decided to play something
  26. 13:51else other than F#7. That would be substitution. Substituting things. Substituting things is totally fine, but I would say the first rule of thumb should be what can I play on F#7? You see? That’s harder. To me, that’s harder. It’s harder to play in than it is to play out stuff, cuz once you start playing out stuff, that’s totally fine. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s obviously it’s awesome. I love playing out, too. But, it shouldn’t be I’m playing out because I’ve run out of stuff to play
  27. 14:25in. You should play out because you want to play out, not because, “Oh, I only have a five things I know how to do on F#7.” You shouldn’t do it that way. You should exhaust everything that you could possibly do on F#7, which is impossible, by the way. You can’t. Just there’s limitless amount of things that you could do on F#7. But, I want you to take those scale outlines and the concept of a scale outline really seriously. Now, the other thing that that people ask sometimes in the videos is, “Hey, uh is there rules
  28. 14:58for scale outline?” Not necessarily. There’s just context of what things are doing within a key. So, I would say there were certain tunes that have certain little spots where Barry would come some with something slightly different. But, I would say 95% of the time a scale outline only consisted of three scales. The regular seven-note major scale, the regular seven-note dominant scale, and the third scale was the only one that overlapped from his harmonic concept, which is a minor sixth diminished scale.
  29. 15:32So, if you went into something real minor, like in Cherokee, there’s a little spot where Bird plays the C minor thing, and you and you would use C minor sixth diminished scale there. But, those are the only three scales basically for scale outlines. Now, sometimes it is true, there is diminishee things that that we do play, but those don’t come up all that often. Most of the time, most changes can be handled by those three. So, it’s really fascinating. So, I want you to keep that in mind, you know, because I know obviously me on the channel, I’m constantly raving about
  30. 16:06Barry for for good reason. But, um and his harmonic system, which is completely unique to him, nobody else thought of harmony that way, not in the jazz idiom, nobody. They certainly didn’t teach it that way. And the same thing for single notes, but the thing that people miss on the single notes is that whole idea for the scale outline. I never heard anybody else do that, never. Never. I know a whole bunch of people that go to all those other music schools, I never heard that in my whole life. So, that’s one that I I really feel like
  31. 16:41that was the thing that helped me the most at least, a person who was coming from um rock music into the jazz idiom, where you’re just like, oh man, how am I ever going to get a handle on this? This is all these changes are happening. This was the perfect foundational piece for me. So, anyway, uh hope you enjoyed that. I went a little long, but uh yeah, I want you all to think about your scale outlines. Take care.